‘The Jungle Lord’, originally from Dolisie in the Congo, replaced Marcelo Da’Silva when the Brazilian failed to make his flight after his brother was reportedly shot and killed and his mother severely beaten.

Bell, coming off a career best win over Daniel ‘Porky’ Lovett last October, gauged his opponent in the opening round, while Michael Angelo had some success with lunging overhand rights.

It quickly became apparent that Michael Angelo’s strategy was to score with single blows before either pivoting out of harms way or tying up. Referee Chris Anderson was quick to break up the clinches to encourage clean, effective fighting.

As the rounds wore on it was Bell’s range and power that made the difference. While Michael Angelo was able to make some of the middle rounds close, the 30-year-old carpenter from Glenroy was able to walk down the naturally smaller ‘Jungle Lord’ throughout the fight, landing heavy right hands and a sustained two-fisted body attack.

Bell’s superior size and physicality took its toll over the distance and at the conclusion the scorecards told the story. Judge Aneeka Williams scored it 117-110, Allan McColl 120-107, while judge Con Theodorou had it 119-108.

Bell has stated his desire to fight comebacking former world titleholder Danny Green, who holds a split decision win over Bell in their Olympic qualifier in 2000.

On the undercard Mark Quon 4-2 (1) was impressive in winning the vacant Australian super bantamweight title from Dean Livanos 4-1 (1) over ten hotly contested rounds. It was clear from the early going that Livanos was the bigger puncher of the two, but Quon used his superior ring generalship to control the distance and determine when to engage.

In other results lightweight Will Tomlinson was all class in stopping Kane Buckley, welterweight Tim Hunt stopped Robert Monitto and left him on queer street, Kashif Mumtaz scored a shock KO victory over Travis Staron at light heavyweight, Jimmy James outboxed Jean Claude at junior middleweight and heavyweight Arnold Pellman won on points against David McDonald over four rounds.